Monday, 16 March 2015

The good thing
about clichés is that they impart information quickly and reliably. If someone
says it’s raining cats and dogs, you know exactly what they mean.

The bad thing
about clichés is that they get overused which leads to them feeling unoriginal
and lazy. When you know what’s someone’s saying before they’ve even finished
saying it you stop paying attention. And a reader who isn’t paying attention is
not what a writer wants.

Weeding out
familiar phrases isn’t too difficult. Getting rid of overused scenes and
premises is not so easy.

Certain types of
scenes occur so often because readers want them—in some cases even expect them.
They want the guy and the gal to end up together; they want the evil plot to be
foiled. And different genres have tropes that readers enjoy seeing again and
again. But while
commercially there may be an acceptance of the same old story, artistically it
can feel less satisfactory for writers and more discerning readers.

So how do
you write scenes that readers are eagerly anticipating without simply producing
an imitation of every other book already out there?

You can, of
course, come up with a new twist on an old idea. Most likely, anything that’s
get you excited enough to put pen to paper will have an element of this. But a
book is a long thing, and you will be hard pressed to come up with a completely
new take on every scene. In fact, it’s probably not advisable even if you
wanted to. Most readers want some degree of the familiar and relatable, not
something so different that it feels surreal or experimental.

What you can do
to lift these kinds of scenes is to give your character a little
self-awareness.

If a guy in a
leather jacket carrying a shotgun kicked your door down and said, “Come with me
if you want to live,” it might occur to you that what was happening was like
something out of a movie. And that awareness might make you not react the way a
character in a story would. In fact, running away from this nutjob mightbe your best option.

You might not go
alone into the attic to check out that sound of someone sharpening a knife. You
might not ask the genie for a million bucks. You might even ask a direct
question of a person acting suspiciously to avoid any misunderstandings.

Most characters
in fiction act like they’ve never read a book or seen a movie. They take things
at face value, go along with whatever other people want, and are taken by
surprise when the obvious happens.

Wait, you mean the kidnappers never planned
to keep their end of the deal? How could they be so dishonest?

The thing is,
though, characters can’t directly reference their predicament. Your female lead
can’t make the observation that having the two hunkiest guys in school fight
over her is like something out of a YA novel if, in fact, she is in a YA novel.
It draws too much attention to itself and you want the reader to focus on the
content not the medium. It’s not impossible to write that kind of meta-fiction,
but it will feel jokey.

In most cases
it’s not the clichéd premise that’s the problem, it’s the reactions of the
characters. But if you allow the character to be aware of the trope (without
overtly having her state it) you can take the scene in more interesting
directions.

For example, if
our YA lead’s reaction to having Jim and Jon vie for her affections is to say,
“Great, you can do my book report for me and you can pick up my dad’s dry
cleaning. Thanks.” Let’s see how deep their love is now.

If she’s aware
of where being timid and flattered by a little attention can lead you, she’ll
be less likely to blindly go that way.

Knowing that
something to good to be true probably is, that people have agendas they aren’t
telling you about, that doing what other people want you to do is a schmuck’s
game, can give a character a healthy dose of original thinking.

Even if the
writer knows the guy promising the world is going to deliver, that doesn’t mean
the character does. And knowing that even handsome millionaires can turn out to
be douche bags is something we should all be aware of.

One of my favorite authors wrote into one of her stories a character mentioning a paranormal romance novel. Which is what the book was. I found it hilarious the way she wrote and is one of my favorite scenes in the story.

I enjoy it when a character makes a reference to something being fiction, if it's done well. My favorite was a character facing a bizarre series of happenings who said, "If you wrote this in a book, no one would believe it."

I find that one of the best ways to overcome a character doing something cliché-like is to make sure that character, or someone else in the scene, either makes a comment or have an interior thought about it. It's the author's way of telling the reader, "Yes, I know what I did. Just give me a chance and I'll make it worth your while."